If the Rangers and Blues are still interested in a Nash-for-Shattenkirk trade, the Blues may have found a way to fit Nash's salary on to their books.

A contract dispute with the St. Louis Blues led center Vladimir Sobotka to spend the past two seasons playing in Russia. The 29-year-old reportedly intends to use his out-clause with KHL team Avangard Omsk to return to the Blues in 2016-17

Those plans, however, apparently hit a snag. Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports Avangard Omsk seeks a fee from Sobotka which he's yet to pay. His agent, Petr Svoboda, is still negotiating his release.

If Sobotka is unable to return to the Blues this season, Rutherford's colleague Jeff Gordon suggests the Blues use the savings to offset some of the cost of acquiring winger Rick Nash and his $7.8 million salary-cap hit from the New York Rangers. Gordon cites the Rangers rumored interest in Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who's an unrestricted free agent next summer.

The “Shattenkirk-for-Nash” rumor isn't anything new, frequently surfacing over the course of the summer. Blues general manager Doug Armstrong reportedly shopped the 27-year-old blueliner in late-June but didn't find any suitable offers. TSN's Darren Dreger still believes Shattenkirk is a trade target, but doesn't believe it's a “front-burner” issue right now.

For now, Armstrong appears intent on keeping Stattenkirk for the start of the season. Whether the puck-moving rearguard is moved depends upon the Blues roster needs over the course of this campaign and their position in the standings before the Feb. 28 trade deadline.

If Shattenkirk hits the trade block, there will be considerable interest in his services. Along with the Rangers, the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils could be among the suitors. 

While Shattenkirk lacks a no-trade clause, his UFA status at season's end is a stumbling block. Rutherford claims interested clubs want to know if he'll agree to a contract extension before pursuing a trade.  He said Shattenkirk's unwillingness to sign an extension with the Edmonton Oilers killed a possible deal that would've shipped left winger Taylor Hall to St. Louis. The Oilers instead dealt Hall to the Devils for defenseman Adam Larsson.

OILERS HAVE INTEREST IN KRIS RUSSELL

The status of unrestricted free agent defenseman Kris Russell is attracting interest in the rumor mill. The Edmonton Journal's David Staples cites a TSN report claiming the Edmonton Oilers were discussing a short-term contract with the 29-year-old rearguard. 

TSN's Bob McKenzie believes Russell could be a decent short-term fit with the Oilers, who still need experienced depth among their top-four blueliners. Earlier this summer, the shot-blocking specialist reportedly sought a five-year deal. McKenzie believes he'll accept a one-year contract, perhaps seeking between $4-$5 million.

The Oilers aren't the only club the Russell camp have spoken with in recent weeks. McKenzie claims they've talked to as many as eight NHL teams. It's rumored the Calgary Flames, who dealt Russell to the Dallas Stars at last season's trade deadline, would like to bring him back.  However, they've also got to re-sign restricted free agent star winger Johnny Gaudreau.

It could cost around $7 million per season to get Gaudreau under contract. With $7.9 million in cap space, that won't leave much room for the Flames to pursue Russell unless they make a cost-cutting deal.

Rumor Roundup appears regularly only on thehockeynews.com. Lyle Richardson has been an NHL commentator since 1998 on his website, spectorshockey.net, and is a contributing writer for Eishockey News and The Guardian (P.E.I.).

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Canada got a scare from the Russians and trailed for the second time in the entire tournament, but Brad Marchand’s pair of goals helped put Canada ahead for good.

It was looking a little dicey for Canada for awhile. Even though the master plan was in full effect – control the play and bombard Russia with shots – netminder Sergei Bobrovsky was playing Superman in the other crease. But good things tend to happen when Canada follows the plan and eventually Bobrovsky could hold the fort no longer. In the end, Canada got the 5-3 score that reflected the imbalance on the ice and now the Canucks move on to the World Cup final.

It's actually quite incredible that Russia led the game 2-1 at one point in the second. After Sidney Crosby opened the scoring with a tremendous strip and deke in the first, Russia repaid Bobrovsky for his heroics in the second. A bad Jay Bouwmeester pinch led to a 2-on-1 and a Nikita Kucherov snipe, which was followed by Evgeny Kuznetsov cashing in on a nice charge by Ivan Telegin.

But Crosby came to Canada's rescue again, hawking another puck in the offensive zone and slinging it to a wide-open Brad Marchand, who made no mistake at the side of the net.

The dam finally broke in the third, with Marchand slipping a wrister past Bobrovsky, followed by strikes by Corey Perry and John Tavares. Canada outshot Russia brutally throughout the contest and the possession numbers were similarly one-sided, as one would presume. Despite Bobrovsky's all-world play (a quick recap: he stoned Tavares on two point-blank shots, outwaited Steven Stamkos on a goal-mouth sojourn and stopped a streaking Marchand tip, among many other feats), Canada got the result it deserved.

Alex Ovechkin was practically invisible thanks to Shea Weber and Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Canada's excellent defensive forwards made up for some shaky play by blueliners Bouwmeester and Alex Pietrangelo.

So now the Red and White Killing Machine moves on, to face either Sweden or Europe. Canada got a nice challenge from Russia, at least for part of the game, and now the gold is in sight. If everybody sticks to the plan, as per usual, Canada will be very hard to beat once in the final, let alone twice.

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Team Europe looked like an awful idea early on, but Ralph Krueger's group shocked Sweden -- and almost everyone else -- by battling their way to a berth in the World Cup final.

Organizers of the World Cup of Hockey might want to get some kind of anthem together for Team Europe. You know, just in case.

Chances are, even after Europe’s 3-2 overtime win over Sweden in the World Cup of Hockey semifinal Sunday afternoon, the team with no country will not be able to beat Team Canada twice to take the title next week. But given that almost nobody predicted it would get this far, well, you never know.

Who would have thought that eight days after the tournament began, Team Europe would be in the semifinal and Tomas Tatar would score at the 3:43 mark of overtime to send it to the final? Just shows that anything can happen in this game, and sometimes does.

Give Team Europe its due credit. It was taken to the woodshed by Team North America in its first pre-tournament game, then found itself behind 5-1 to the kids after the first period of its second pre-tournament game. But since then, Team Europe has been a consistent, if unspectacular, force in the proceedings.

Against Sweden, Team Europe played the way it had to in order to be successful. It played a cautious style, waiting for its opportunities to create offense off the transition. And it worked, with Marian Gaborik tying the score 1-1 in the second period, then Tatar scoring the winner just 12 seconds into the third period.

The Swedes, on the other hand, have no excuse for the way they played. This is a squad whose senior advisors are Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson and Nicklas Lidstrom. It has some outstanding offensive talent and an explosive defense corps. And it played a style that was passive and boring and, ultimately, destined to fail. And when it happened, anyone who enjoys the more creative side of hockey should have cheered. Loudly.

During an intermission interview with Scott Oake of Hockey Night in Canada after the first period, Gabriel Landeskog summed up the Swedes’ approach to the game, along with pretty much everything that is wrong with hockey. “We kind of stood around waiting for each other,” he said. “But this is the semifinal of the World Cup of Hockey. You’re not going to give them anything just to play a beautiful game.”

It was anything but a beautiful game, but it was enough to send Team Europe to the final of a tournament and put itself in a position almost nobody thought it would be when the tournament started.

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The Maple Leafs' rebuild continues and another last-place finish is very likely, but this year, thanks to an injection of young talent, they will improve, and be fun to watch.

THN is rolling out its 2016-17 Team Previews daily, in reverse order of 2015-16 overall finish, until the start of the season. We start with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who finished in 30th last season.

THN's Prediction: 8th in Atlantic

Stanley Cup odds: 90-1

Key additions: Auston Matthews, C; Matt Martin, LW; Nikita Zaitsev, D; Roman Polak, D; Frederik Andersen, G; Jhonas Enroth, G

Key departures: P-A Parenteau, RW; Jonathan Bernier, G; Michael Grabner, RW; T.J. Brennan, D

THREE QUESTIONS:

-Who is Toronto’s No. 1 center? Technically, it’s going to be Nazem Kadri again. Yes, highly vaunted rookie Auston Matthews arrives, but he’ll need to be protected at least somewhat, just as Buffalo has Ryan O’Reilly for Jack Eichel. Kadri has been playing some of the toughest competition and coming out with good possession numbers, so really, nothing will change. But make no mistake: in a year or two, Matthews takes over. If his World Championship performance with Team USA was any indication, you basically just have to tell Matthews when it’s time to take over a team and he’ll do it. Must be nice.

-What is the next step for Morgan Rielly? Toronto’s best defenseman at 22, Rielly plays tough competition and drives possession. His offense is pretty decent for a blueliner, but the next mission will be to kick it up another notch. The Leafs were starved for scoring last year, and the power play was a drag. Rielly had eight points with the man advantage. He’s capable of improving on that, and once he does, his totals will be more in line with what they should be. Breaking 40 points should be the goal to begin with.

-Is Frederik Andersen the answer in net? He could be, but don’t expect too much this season. The Maple Leafs may have landed Matthews, but they’re still in the midst of a rebuild that will see them take on more water before the leaks get plugged. Anaheim was a slightly better possession team than Toronto and gave up fewer shots against, so Andersen will be busier. Plus, he'll coming off an injury sustained at an Olympic qualifying tournament. As long as he doesn’t take this year’s stats personally, the workload could help him in the long run.

Player projections are based off a three-year version of Game Score (which you can read about here) weighted by recency and repeatability and then translated to its approximate win value (Game Score Value Added or GSVA). Team strength was derived from the combined value of every player’s GSVA on a team. The season was then simulated 10,000 times factoring in team strength, opponent strength and rest.

BY DOMINIK LUSZCZYSZYN

There’s a lot of pessimism surrounding this team, which is fair because, well, they were the worst team in the league last season, but Toronto will be much improved this season. The Leafs were one of the unluckiest teams last season thanks to abysmal shooting and save percentages, both of which should bounce back this season. The latter should especially improve with the addition of former Duck goalie Frederik Andersen.

There’s also a huge injection of talent coming into the lineup that should boost them higher up the standings. James van Riemsdyk missed half the season last year and his presence alone should be enough to provide a spark. Then there’s the big three prospects who likely make their full season debuts for the team. The trio is oozing with a dynamic offensive skill-set that was sorely missed last year.

Based on his limited NHL playing time, Nylander looks to make the biggest projected impact of the three, and on the team for that matter. He only played 22 games, but it was enough to impress this model into believing he’s already a first line talent. The other two don’t have any NHL experience, so their impacts were based on their projected points combined with the average Leaf forward’s possession driving ability. (Projected points were based on a combination of NHLe and our own Poolbook’s projections.)

Based on that method, the Leafs likely have three of the top five rookies this season with their combined impact being worth roughly seven standings points. (NHLe for players from the Finnish league are usually low so that skews Patrik Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi and Sebastian Aho lower than expected).

 

It’s a lot to expect out of three kids, none of whom can even drink at a bar during any road trips to an American city, but these aren’t three ordinary kids. The Leafs still won’t be a good team – especially considering their putrid defence core – and there’s still plenty of pain on the horizon, but there’s plenty of reason for optimism too. This team could surprise this season, although a lot depends on what the lineup actually looks like. They likely won’t repeat as the league’s worst team, but a bottom five finish is still probable.

Up next: Edmonton Oilers